December 9, 2016 ▸ People, True Crime

Episode 152: The Port Arthur Massacre

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On this Sofa King Podcast, we go back to the land down under and look into the infamous Port Arthur Massacre. This was a massive story in Australia, but in America, very few people have heard this wild tale. On April 28, 1996, a man named Martin Bryant allegedly took multiple high powered rifles and killed over 35 people and wounded 23 in a slaughter that would permanently change the gun laws for that entire country. This event, and the legal backlash that came after it are the model that American Conspiracy theorists point to when they claim that mass shootings are a false flag event.

So why did Bryant kill all these people? His story is a pretty crazy one. Bryant was a troubled kid (who of course tortured small animals…), and he had mental illness ranging from ADHD to possible schizophrenia. He also had an IQ of 66, which put him on par with a typical 11 year old once he was an adult. His life took a strange number of turns that landed him working for Helen Harvey, the heiress of a lottery fortune. He lived in her mansion, fed her dogs, and helped her shop for things like thirty cars in three years! Eventually, Helen died when Bryant lunged for the steering wheel and got them into a horrible car crash, and he inherited her entire fortune.

Shortly after this, Bryant’s father was found dead under a dam with Bryant’s weight belt tied around his neck, and multiple psychological evaluations over the years said he was a dangerous man. And the danger came in 1996, when he went to Port Arthur, a popular tourist destination and opened fire, killing lots of people.

Or did he? There is a lot of speculation that he could not have pulled this off. Almost every shot was a kill shot to the head or neck, and people don’t think someone with Bryant’s mental deficiencies could have pulled off such a professional level of marksmanship. There are also witness testimonies that contradict the official story, and strange facts about all the law enforcement in the area being away on training the day of the massacre.

Then of course, we discuss the sweeping changes in the gun laws that came in this event’s dark shadow. Whether someone else did this as a false flag or Bryant did the killings himself, you don’t want to miss this one. His back story is wicked crazy, and the events that went down on that day were truly horrific.